From Exhaustion to Empowerment: The Role of Mindfulness in Change

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Change in the workplace is relentless, often leaving employees and managers overwhelmed. Sarah Lange, Manager People & Organizational Development at MHP, shares why mindfulness is the key to navigating these challenges. Discover how mindfulness practices can help teams maintain balance, focus, and resilience in times of transition.

Change is the only constant in life. Even the philosophers of ancient Greece knew this. And it is as true today as it ever was, and more so than ever for the modern working world. We must constantly adapt to new requirements. Fundamentally, we have an immense cognitive and emotional potential to do so. Nevertheless, the degree of this ability varies from person to person.

It depends on how the upcoming change – whether voluntary or not – is interpreted. Those who cope best are those who see change as an opportunity and who are well supported by the company throughout the process. People are then willing to expend the energy and take the risk of constantly developing themselves further for the benefit of everyone.

However, it is precisely in this area of change management that transformation projects continue to fail: companies either have to or consciously want to break new ground, but do not take their employees on this journey with them. A current example is the conflict surrounding flexible working. Just when employees have got used to working from home and the challenges that entails, companies are now bringing them back to the office. A 180-degree turn from one day to the next, which understandably causes uproar. People feel at the mercy of the situation, perceive the change negatively – and rebel against it.

Change puts a strain on the psyche

The Role of Mindfulness in Change
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Another aspect is how often and how drastically companies have to change lately. Various megatrends often drive companies at the same time, triggering one change process after another. This also leads to people becoming tired of change and feeling drained. Current studies confirm this. According to the absenteeism report of the AOK, 47 percent of employees report that they are experiencing major to very major changes in their company, both as a result of the pandemic and due to technological developments.

Added to this are doubts about the company’s future viability, combined with fears about the future. Both contribute to people feeling mentally stressed and ill as a result of their work. Meanwhile, health insurance companies are recording a record number of sick days; some of these are due to mental illnesses that lead to particularly long absences.

What studies show has been confirmed in practice. I regularly experience how much change at work leads to exhaustion and excessive demands, especially among managers. This is because transformation projects are always associated with new roles, systems and a new way of leading and working together. A management style that worked in the office suddenly has to be completely redesigned for digital collaboration. The same applies to the meeting culture. If everything is then scaled back again, the result is utter chaos. Many executives feel incompetent, insecure and uncomfortable as a result.

Mindfulness has a positive influence on leadership behavior

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Twenty20/@spinnermel

So how can companies change while still keeping employees mentally healthy? At MHP, we operate a number of teams that address the overarching issue of mental health, both within our own organization and for clients. We develop special programs, training courses, incentives and many other measures for dealing with change and stress – and for retaining valuable talent in times of a shortage of skilled personnel. I am particularly focusing on mindfulness and on executives, who often play a key role in their function as role models in the company.

The positive effects of mindfulness on the job, such as regulated stress levels, memory performance or empathy, have long been empirically proven. What’s more, controlled breathing, meditation and mindfulness exercises can even demonstrably change brain structures – which in turn can reduce anxiety.

In my dissertation, I found, among other things, that leaders who are mindful in the way they treat themselves and their employees act less destructively and more transformationally. In specially developed mindfulness-based training sessions for managers, my team and I also found that their leadership behavior improved significantly, they were able to reduce their stress levels, became more mindful and both their leadership behavior and their state of mind had a positive effect on their employees.

Not just preaching, but practicing

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Twenty20/@chrisfloresfoto

From my experience, I can make a clear recommendation to companies: don’t just acknowledge the problems and change the symptoms, but really embrace the topic and thereby remove the stigma. This means actually training employees in mindfulness so that they can keep a cool head during the change process – and in their everyday work. It starts with the executives. They are the role models that their employees look up to. They can give their teams a sense of emotional security in what is currently a very volatile environment, and radiate calmness to themselves and others.

In addition, measures such as forming communities in which the topic of mindful communication is discussed and practiced are recommended. Here, a pleasant and safe space is created in which people can exchange ideas. In addition, new rituals such as check-ins and check-outs, short meditations and body scans can be implemented in meetings. In the long term, such measures even lead to a higher affective commitment. It is important not to focus on quick, efficient results, but on long-term effects. Only then will companies benefit from healthy, resilient, productive and loyal employees during change as well as in daily business.

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Foto Sarah Lange

Dr. Sarah Lange has been working at MHP in the People & Organization cluster and in the Organizational Transformation team since 2019. In her role as a portfolio developer, she is currently working on a consulting approach to the topic of mental health in companies and organizations. Before joining MHP, Sarah Lange researched and taught on issues of business psychology at the Department of Human Resource Development and Change Management at the Technical University of Dortmund.

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